ManpLab - Modern Fractal Explorer - Release 1.6.0 (Educational Fork)

Platform C++ .NET License

A modern WinUI 3 fractal explorer powered by Paul de Leeuw's production-grade rendering engine

ManpLab combines a modern, intuitive WinUI 3 interface with Paul de Leeuw's exceptional fractal rendering engine - featuring perturbation theory, BLA acceleration, and arbitrary-precision arithmetic for extreme deep zoom capabilities (magnification > 10^100).

ManpLab Application Screenshot

ManpLab Application - Dark theme

• ✨ Modern WinUI 3 Interface - Clean, responsive UI with MVVM architecture
• 🎨 328 Fractal Types - Extended from Paul's 246 originals with 82 new implementations
• 🔬 Deep Zoom Technology - Perturbation theory with magnifications exceeding 10^100
• ⚡ BLA Acceleration - Series approximation for extreme performance at deep zoom levels
• 🧮 Arbitrary Precision - MPFR, QD, and DD libraries for numerical accuracy
• 🎬 Animation Rendering - Create MP4 videos with FFmpeg integration
• 🎯 Flexible Parameter System - Template-based parameters for 328 diverse fractal types with consistent UI
• 📚 Fractal Browser - Metadata, formulas, bookmarks, navigation history
• 🎨 Theme System - Light, Dark, Ocean Blue, and System themes
• 🖱️ Interactive Exploration - Mouse, keyboard, and touch navigation
• ⌨️ Full Keyboard Shortcuts

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ManpWinUI (WinUI 3 / .NET 10) │
│ Modern UI, MVVM, Theme System │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
 │
┌──────────────────▼──────────────────────┐
│ Native C++ Fractal Engine │
│ (Paul de Leeuw's Production Engine) │
│ • Perturbation Theory │
│ • BLA Acceleration │
│ • Arbitrary Precision (MPFR/QD) │
│ • 246 Original Fractal Types │
│ • Extended to 328 Types in ManpLab │
│ • Multithreaded Rendering │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

This educational fork makes Paul DeLeeuw's well-engineered rendering technology accessible through a modern, user-friendly interface designed for students, educators, and researchers.

The Flexible Parameter System (FPS) enables ManpLab to handle 328 diverse fractal types with elegance:

1. Uses templates to accommodate the varying parameter requirements of many different fractal types
2. Provides a consistent user interface for all those types

• 🔧 Flexibility: Each of the 328 fractals can have its own unique set of parameters

  • Newton fractals get polynomial degree controls
  • Mandelbrot gets bailout settings
  • Strange attractors get system parameters
  • And more...

• 🎨 Consistency: Despite these differences, every fractal presents its parameters in the same organized, easy-to-use interface with:

  • Categorized parameter groups
  • Helpful tooltips and descriptions
  • Built-in validation and constraints
  • Unified editing experience

Mandelbrot Set rendered in the Spectrum palette

Mandelbrot Set rendered in the Spectrum palette

Classic Julia Set rendered in the Fire palette

Classic Julia Set rendered in the Fire palette

Zoomed Tetrate rendered in the Psychedelic palette

Zoomed Tetrate rendered in the Psychedelic palette

2-Dimensional Hailstone Sequence with segments and point labels

2-Dimensional Hailstone Sequence with segments and point labels

Latest Release

Download Latest Release →

• No installation - extract and run ManpWinUI.exe
• No security warnings - runs immediately
• Self-contained - includes all dependencies
• Perfect for: Educational use, quick testing, no admin rights needed

• Modern Windows app - clean install/uninstall via Settings
• ⚠️ Shows security warning - unsigned package (normal for open-source)
• See installation guide included in the download
• Best for: Users preferring managed apps with auto-update support

git clone https://github.com/markhassellsmith/ManpLab.git
cd ManpLab
# Open ManpLab.sln in Visual Studio 2022 and build (F5)

All dependencies are included. The project builds without additional configuration.

Requirements:

• Windows 10 or 11 (x64)
• Visual Studio 2022 (Community Edition supported)
• .NET 10 SDK
• Git (for cloning)

ManpLab serves as a comprehensive platform for studying fractals, numerical methods, and computational mathematics:

• Complex dynamics: 328 fractal types including Mandelbrot, Julia sets, Newton fractals
• Perturbation theory and BLA series approximation
• Arbitrary-precision arithmetic (MPFR, QD, DD libraries)
• Newton-Raphson root finding and analytical derivatives

• WinUI 3 with MVVM pattern and C++/WinRT interop
• Large-scale C++ engine (156 source files, 6 CMake subprojects)
• Multithreaded rendering with progressive cancellation
• Template metaprogramming and cache optimization

• Electrical: Chua's circuit, fractal antennas, chaos-based encryption
• Mechanical: Turbulent flow, nonlinear oscillators, fracture mechanics
• General: Strange attractors (Lorenz, Rössler, Hénon), bifurcation analysis, Lyapunov exponents

• Deep Zoom: Perturbation theory, BLA series expansion, arbitrary precision (MPFR), FloatExp extended exponent range
• Rendering: Multiple modes (escape-time, slope/derivative, distance estimation), orbit traps, biomorph coloring, 24-bit true color, bump mapping
• Performance: Multithreaded (all CPU cores), boundary tracing, progressive rendering, dynamic task distribution
• Formula System: Custom scripting language, VM bytecode execution, 100+ functions, Fractint compatibility

• MVVM architecture with data binding
• Theme support (Light, Dark, Ocean Blue, System)
• Fractal metadata browser with favorites
• Animation timeline editor

Classic Fractals (20+): Mandelbrot variants, Julia sets, Burning Ship, Newton fractals, Magnet fractals

Advanced Variants (40+): MandelDerivatives, Mandelbar/Tricorn, Spider, Thorn, Tetration, Power Towers

Scientific Systems (30+): Strange attractors (Lorenz, Rössler, Hénon, Pickover, Chua), bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov fractals

Hailstone Sequences: 2D integer lattice dynamics with cycle detection, 5 transformation presets

Geometric & IFS (20+): Sierpinski, Apollonius, Pascal triangle, L-Systems, Barnsley fern

Artistic Fractals (25+): BuddhaBrot, Popcorn, Hopalong, Plasma, DLA, Langton's ant

Tierazon Set (30+): Phoenix, Hypercomplex, Froth, Icon/Icon3D, function compositions

Research Fractals (15+): Perturbation-optimized, polynomial, rational maps, Kleinian groups

Custom: User-defined formulas via scripting language

ManpLab/
├── ManpWinUI/ # WinUI 3 application (.NET 10)
│ ├── ViewModels/ # MVVM view models
│ ├── Views/ # XAML pages and controls
│ ├── Services/ # Business logic layer
│ └── Documentation/ # Comprehensive project docs
│
├── ManpCore.Services/ # Shared .NET services
│ └── FractalEngineWrapper.cs
│
├── ManpCore.Native/ # C++/WinRT interop layer
│ └── FractalEngineWrapper.cpp/.h
│
├── ManpWIN64/ # Native C++ rendering engine (156 files)
│ ├── Perturbation.cpp # Perturbation algorithm
│ ├── Approximation.cpp # BLA acceleration
│ ├── Slope.cpp # Derivative shading
│ ├── BigComplex.cpp # Arbitrary-precision complex
│ ├── Pixel.cpp # Standard iteration engine
│ └── ...
│
├── parser/ # Formula parser & VM (21 files)
├── qdlib/ # Quad-double arithmetic
├── pnglib/ # PNG export
├── ZLib/ # Compression
└── external/ # MPFR, GMP, FFmpeg libraries

Core Rendering: Pixel.cpp, BigPixel.cpp, Perturbation.cpp, PertEngine.cpp

Precision Types: Complex.cpp, BigComplex.cpp, DDComplex.cpp, QDComplex.cpp, ExpComplex.cpp

Algorithms: Approximation.cpp, Slope.cpp, FwdDiff.cpp, MandelDerivatives.cpp

Fractals: FractintFunctions.cpp, TierazonFunctions.cpp, Miscfrac.cpp, Bif.cpp

Color: Colour.cpp, Colour1.cpp, ColourMethod.cpp, TrueCol.cpp

1. Add custom color palettes
2. Implement parameter presets
3. Create keyboard shortcuts
4. Implement simple fractal variants

5. Histogram-based coloring
6. Progressive rendering preview
7. Parameter animation system
8. Undo/redo navigation
9. New escape-time fractals
10. Distance estimation rendering
11. Statistical analysis tools
12. 3D lighting and shadows

13. GPU acceleration (CUDA/OpenCL)
14. Distributed rendering
15. SIMD optimization (AVX2/AVX-512)
16. Adaptive precision management
17. Automatic differentiation
18. Fractal dimension calculator
19. Plugin architecture
20. Cross-platform port (Linux/Mac)

21. Novel series approximation methods
22. Machine learning for exploration
23. Perturbation theory for complex formulas
24. Real-time deep zoom interaction

Requirements: Visual Studio 2022, C++ and .NET workloads, .NET 10 SDK

1. Clone: git clone https://github.com/markhassellsmith/ManpLab.git
2. Open ManpLab.sln in Visual Studio 2022
3. Build (F5)

All dependencies included - builds without additional configuration.

Build Issues: Ensure C++ and .NET workloads installed, verify .NET 10 SDK, clean and rebuild if needed

Runtime: Use Release build (Debug is slower), ensure dependencies (MPFR, GMP) in output directory

Performance: Deep zoom auto-enables BLA/perturbation, reduce iterations for exploration, use progressive rendering

Frontend: .NET 10, WinUI 3, C#, XAML, MVVM Toolkit

Native Engine: C++17, Win32 API, CMake 3.23+

Mathematical Libraries: MPFR 4.2.2, GMP 6.3.0, QD Library, DD Arithmetic

Media: FFmpeg (animation export), libpng, ZLib

Books:

• Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature
• Peitgen et al., Chaos and Fractals
• Pickover, Computers, Pattern, Chaos and Beauty

Online:

• FractalForums.org
• Kalles Fraktaler
• Inigo Quilez - Distance Estimation

Papers:

• Hart, "Distance Estimation for Fractals"
• Claude Heiland-Allen, perturbation theory articles
• Lorenz (1963), "Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow"

Contributions are welcome from students, educators, and researchers.

Guidelines:

• Test Debug and Release builds
• Keep dependencies in external/ directory
• Follow existing code style
• Document significant changes
• Maintain backward compatibility

Development Workflow:

1. Fork repository
2. Create feature branch
3. Make changes and test
4. Submit pull request with description

Priority Areas:

• GPU acceleration, additional fractals, performance optimizations
• Documentation, tutorials, unit tests
• Novel algorithms, research contributions

Paul de Leeuw (Paul the LionHeart) - Native rendering engine with perturbation theory, BLA acceleration, and 246 original fractal implementations

Mark Hassell Smith - Modern WinUI 3 interface, MVVM architecture, 82 new fractals, metadata system, and educational materials

GitHub Copilot - Development assistance and documentation support

Special thanks to the fractal community at FractalForums.org for continued inspiration and technical contributions.

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

This project includes third-party libraries with their own licenses (MPFR, GMP, libpng, ZLib).

v1.5.1 (2026) - Educational fork with WinUI 3 interface, 328 fractal types (extended from Paul de Leeuw's 246), metadata system, animation rendering, theme system

Original ManpWIN - Paul de Leeuw (1990s-2010s) - Deep zoom, perturbation theory, BLA acceleration, 246 fractals, arbitrary-precision arithmetic

ManpLab includes 328 unique fractals organized into 41 categories. This comprehensive catalog spans classic mathematical fractals, strange attractors, physical systems, and experimental variations.

• Aizawa Attractor
• Chen-Lee Attractor
• Dadras Attractor
• Halvorsen Attractor
• Lorenz Attractor
• Pickover Attractor
• Thomas Attractor

• Barnsley J1
• Barnsley J2
• Barnsley J3
• Barnsley M1
• Barnsley M2
• Barnsley M3

• Henon Bifurcation
• Henon Parameter Space
• Lambda Bifurcation
• Lambda Parameter Space
• Logistic Bifurcation
• Mandelbrot Parameter Space
• Orbit Diagram

• Burning Ship (Power 3)
• Burning Ship (Power 4)

• Bird of Prey
• Buffalo Burning Ship
• Burning Ship Cubic
• Burning Ship Quartic
• Burning Ship Quintic
• Celtic Burning Ship
• Diagonal Burning Ship
• Partial Burning Ship
• Perpendicular Burning Ship
• Reverse Burning Ship
• Shark Burning Ship
• Vertical Burning Ship

• Arneodo Attractor
• Liu-Chen Attractor
• Rabinovich-Fabrikant Attractor
• Sprott B Attractor

• Arrhenius Kinetics (Thermal Activation)
• Cahn-Hilliard Phase Separation
• Gray-Scott Reaction-Diffusion
• Langmuir-Hinshelwood Surface Catalysis

• Lambda
• Mandel-Lambda
• Mandelbrot Set
• Tetrate
• Unity

• Legendre Polynomial

• 1/sin(z)2
• cos(z)/tan(z)
• Square + Trig
• Tetration (z^z)
• Trig + Trig
• Trig Squared
• Trig ×ばつ Trig
• z·sin(z) + z

• Chebyshev Polynomial
• Combinatorial Mandelbrot
• Inverse Combinatorial

• Burning Ship (Distance Estimator)
• Julia (Distance Estimator)
• Mandelbrot (Distance Estimator)
• Tricorn (Distance Estimator)

• Jacobi Elliptic cn
• Jacobi Elliptic dn
• Jacobi Elliptic sn
• Weierstrass ζ-function
• Weierstrass σ-function
• Weierstrass ℘-function

• Buffalo Fractal
• Celtic Mandelbrot
• Heart Mandelbrot
• Perpendicular Mandelbrot
• Quasi-Perpendicular
• Shark Fin
• Wavy
• Zubieta

• Magnet I
• Magnet II
• Phoenix Fractal

• Complex Power
• Exponential Fractal
• Exponential Julia
• Exponential Logarithmic
• Exponential Square
• Lambda Lambda Exponential
• Lambda Mandel Exponential
• Logarithm Fractal
• Logarithmic Mandelbrot
• Mandelbrot Exponential
• Power Tower (z^z)
• z^z + c

• Chip Map
• Collatz Fractal
• Duffing Map
• Martin Map
• Pickover Biomorphs
• Pickover Stalks
• Quaternion Julia (2D Slice)
• Sinusoidal Fractal

• Bifurcation-Mandelbrot
• Burning Mandelbrot Hybrid
• Celtic Mandelbrot (Hybrid)
• Celtic-Burning Ship Hybrid
• Collatz-Style Hybrid
• Exponential-Mandelbrot Blend
• Exponential-Mandelbrot Hybrid
• Magnet-Mandelbrot Hybrid
• Mandelbrot-Burning Ship Hybrid
• Mandelbrot-Lambda Mix
• Multi-Power Cycle
• Mutant Mandelbrot (Power Evolution)
• Newton-Mandelbrot Blend
• Perturbed Newton
• Sierpinski-Mandelbrot Cross
• Sine-Mandelbrot Hybrid
• Tricorn-Phoenix Hybrid
• Trig-Mandelbrot Blend

• Barnsley Fern (IFS)
• Dragon Curve (IFS)
• Pentagon (IFS)
• Sierpinski Triangle (IFS)
• Tree (IFS)

• Julia - Airplane
• Julia - Backbone
• Julia - Cauliflower
• Julia - Crystal
• Julia - Dendrite (Preset)
• Julia - Dragon (Preset)
• Julia - Eye
• Julia - Feigenbaum Point
• Julia - Flower
• Julia - Fractal Tree
• Julia - Fuzzy Blob
• Julia - Golden Ratio
• Julia - Heart
• Julia - Lightning
• Julia - Medusa
• Julia - Neurons
• Julia - Paisley
• Julia - Seahorse Valley
• Julia - Snowflake
• Julia - Spiral Galaxy
• Julia - Spiral (Preset)
• Julia - Triple Spiral
• Julia - Twisted Cross

• Julia - Burning Ship
• Julia - Classic
• Julia - Cubic
• Julia - Custom
• Julia - Dendrite
• Julia - Douady Rabbit
• Julia - Dragon
• Julia - Exponential
• Julia - Lambda
• Julia - Lambda (Alt)
• Julia - Magnet
• Julia - Multibrot 3
• Julia - Multibrot 4
• Julia - Phoenix
• Julia - Power 5
• Julia - Power 6
• Julia - San Marco
• Julia - Siegel Disk
• Julia - Siegel Disk (Alt)
• Julia - Sine
• Julia - Spiral

• Dragon Curve
• Fractal Plant
• Hilbert Curve
• Koch Curve
• Koch Snowflake
• Peano Curve
• Sierpinski Triangle

• Lambda Flip
• Lambda Modified
• Lambda Phoenix
• Lambda Power 3
• Lambda Power 4
• Lambda Squared
• Lambda Tan
• Lambda Tanh

• Magnet I Cubic
• Magnet I Julia
• Magnet II Cubic
• Magnet II Julia

• Burning Ship
• Celtic Buffalo
• Celtic Heart
• Heart Mandelbrot (Sine)
• Julia Power 4
• Mandelbar
• Mandelbar (Conjugate)
• Mandelbrot Power 4
• Mandelbrot-Lambda
• Manowar
• Marks Julia
• Marks Mandelbrot
• Marks Mandelbrot (Classic)
• Multibrot (Power 6)
• Multibrot (Power 7)
• Multibrot (Power 8)
• Multibrot4 (Quartic)
• Multibrot5 (Quintic)
• Multibrot3 (Cubic)
• Perpendicular Mandelbrot (Abs First)
• Shark Fin Mandelbrot
• Spider
• Spider Variant
• Thorn
• Thorn (Classic)
• Tricorn (Mandelbar)
• Wavy Mandelbrot

• Basquin Fatigue Power Law (S-N Curve)
• Euler-Bernoulli Buckling (Beam Deflection)
• Ramberg-Osgood Plastic Deformation (Malleability)
• Stefan-Boltzmann Radiative Cooling (Heat Flow)
• Torsional Twist (Angle of Twist)

• Buffalo (Polynomial)
• Multibrot-10 (Decic)
• Multibrot-3 (Cubic)
• Multibrot-4 (Quartic)
• Multibrot-5 (Quintic)
• Multibrot-6 (Sextic)
• Multibrot-8 (Octic)
• Tricorn (Polynomial)

• Newton (z3-1)
• Newton Basin (z3-1)
• Newton Cosh
• Newton Quartic (z4-1)
• Newton Quintic (z5-1)
• Newton Sextic (z6-1)
• Newton Sine
• Nova

• Angle Average
• Average Distance
• Maximum Distance
• Minimum Distance

• Orbit Trap (Circle)
• Orbit Trap (Cross)
• Orbit Trap (Point)
• Orbit Trap (Square)

• Circular Orbit Trap
• Cross Orbit Trap
• Delta Magnitude Tracking
• Orbit Angle Accumulation
• Orbital Curvature Tracking
• Point-Line Orbit Trap
• Smoothed Orbit (Running Average)
• Stalks (Conditional)
• Stripe Average Coloring
• Triangle Orbit Trap

• Phoenix Complex Feedback
• Phoenix Cosh
• Phoenix Cubic
• Phoenix Julia
• Phoenix Lambda
• Phoenix Mandelbrot
• Phoenix Quartic
• Phoenix Sine

• Biomorph
• Cubic Mandelbrot
• Polynomial z4+z3+c
• Polynomial z3-z+c
• Quartic Mandelbrot
• Quintic Mandelbrot
• Rational R1
• Sextic Mandelbrot

• Halley's Method z3-1
• Möbius Fractal
• Newton z3-1
• Newton z4-1
• Newton z5-1
• Rational (z2+c)/(z2-c)
• Rational z2/(z3+c)
• Rational z3/(z3+c)

• Airy Function (Bi)
• Bessel-like Oscillatory
• Continued Fraction Fractal
• Dedekind Eta Function
• Error Function (erf) Fractal
• Gamma Function Fractal
• Hyperbolic Combination
• Lambert W Function
• Tetration (Power Tower)

• 2-D Hailstone Trajectory
• Buddhabrot
• Hailstone Sequence
• Lyapunov
• Nebulabrot
• NumFractal
• Tetration (Classic)

• Bose-Einstein Distribution
• Damped Harmonic Oscillator
• Digamma Function ψ(z)
• Fermi-Dirac Distribution
• Planck Distribution
• RLC Circuit Resonance
• Root Locus (Control Systems)
• Trigamma Function ψ'(z)

• Bedhead Attractor
• Clifford Attractor
• De Jong Attractor
• Duffing Attractor
• Svensson Attractor
• Tinkerbell Attractor

• Tricorn (Power 3)
• Tricorn (Power 4)

• Cosecant Mandelbrot
• Cosh Mandelbrot
• Cotangent Mandelbrot
• Mandel Trig
• Secant Mandelbrot
• Sech Mandelbrot
• Sinh Mandelbrot
• Tanh Mandelbrot

• Cos(z) + c
• Lambda Lambda Cosh
• Lambda Lambda Cosine
• Lambda Lambda Sine
• Lambda Lambda Sinh
• Lambda Mandel Cosh
• Lambda Mandel Cosine
• Lambda Mandel Sine
• Lambda Mandel Sinh
• Mandelbrot Trig
• Sin(z) + c
• Sine Fractal

Categories: 41 families | Total Fractals: 328

This catalog represents the current state of ManpLab v1.5.1, combining Paul de Leeuw's original 246 fractals with 78 new implementations spanning mathematical functions, physical systems, and experimental variations.